Marchand gives up a great golly gee, life is good smile at Halifax Fundraiser

HALIFAX - With a mischevious smile and a nod to the right, Sidney Crosby replied to the host's question as to how he had been spending his summer, "Yeah, training a lot, spending a little more time with this guy ... after the playoffs."

This guy was Brad Marchand. He smiled his Brad Marchand smile, which has a surprising amount of "aw shucks" in it for a guy who has Marchand's on-ice reputation. As the person next to me noted, it barely had a tremor of gloat in it, if any at all. Maybe a little good natured widening of the smile when the word "playoffs" was mentioned after a brief hesitation in Crosby's banter.

Marchand and Crosby have been working out together during their time in Halifax, with other notables such as Nathan McKinnon, Andrew Bondarchuk, Chris Clark and Logan Shaw. At the Phoenix House event on July 24th, where Marchand and Crosby both sported their impressive looking Stanley Cup rings, there was no trace of any competitive strain between them and they seemed, in fact, comfortable and jovial with one another. It seems that hockey is a little like Las Vegas; what happens on the ice, stays on the ice.

Marchand later told the crowd, to the expected cheers and hoots, that he had just bought himself a Lamborghini. "Yeah, I figured now might be the right time," he said about buying the car he revealed was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

Marchand looked, indeed, like a kid who had just unwrapped exactly the christmas present he'd been hoping for.

He smiled again, a little wider this time, and said, "It might be the time, before I get a little older and have a family and can't fit a kid into the car."

And clearly his hometown fans found it interesting as well, as a few of them took to twitter to proclaim they'd seen him in the Lamborghini, which is black and extremely beautiful, by the way.

I didn't know it was Brad Marchand at the time, but I saw the same car on the highway a few days before the Phoenix House event. It goes without saying that I saw it first in my rearview, for a few seconds beside me and then, in a matter of a few more seconds, I didn't see it again. At all. It disappeared over the top of a hill and by the time I got there, it was gone past the next hill. He drives, it seems, exactly like he skates.

My brother would call that "balls to the wall". My mother would call it "dangerous". I imagine Marchand just calls it another day at the office.

Just seen Brad Marchand in front of Pete's getting out of his Lamborghini
— stephen (@misterstephen) August 1, 2013

Marchand just drove by in his black lambo... little fella can barely see over the steering wheel
— Joe Hines (@Hinesenberg) August 1, 2013

Maybe it's good and wise that Brad Marchand is thinking of working all the need for speed out of his system before he contemplates "a kid". In any case, good for him. We might love to call him the "little ball of hate" but at the end of the day he's just a guy who is lucky enough to be living the dream.

Marchand was in Halifax in support of "A Night of Champions", a fundraising even in support of Phoenix Youth Programs. And, apparently, he had more of an impact than just working out with Crosby and impressing locals with his Lamborghini.